It can be tough for adolescents in dealing with the pandemic. Lots of them are missing school events and having a long time far from their friends. Teen years are always difficult because they could be more moody or angsty. Connecting with them is rarely easy. You might be sad about how hard it is to communicate with them or how much they withdraw you. However, it doesn’t mean that they don’t need your love, advice, and attention. Keep the conversation light at first when you are trying to open up with them. Stick to the topics that you know they will enjoy. Once you are already getting closer, you can move to other subjects that might be about pandemic or other things going on in their life. Spending extra time with them can also be helpful for them to open up and confide in you. You might as well try;

• Eating and cooking together: Cooking one of their favorite meals together offers an opportunity to talk about what’s going on in their life. Establish dinners around the table with no distractions from TV or phones so you can talk as a family.
• Gardening together: Gardening gives time to talk and strengthen a parent-child bond.
• Exercising or playing sports together: lots of teenagers love to engage themselves physically, it might be playing sports, going on a run, or working out in the gym. This also proves to be a great source of stress relief as well as an opportunity to bond.

A Talk With Your Teen About COVID-19 Pandemic

While young children might be scared about the pandemic, teens are more expected to be bothered by the restrictions. Being with their friends is very important to teens and it might be against social distancing recommendations. If you find it hard to enforce the restrictions and feel like a huge struggle, don’t lose hope. There are ways on how you can get through this without turning your home into a war zone. Here’s how;

• Explain to them the importance of safety measures

Teenagers are likely to feel invincible at the best of times. At this pandemic, they know that the virus might not pose as much of a risk to them as it does to older people. You must explain to them that even though they feel well, they can still be asymptomatic carriers and could pass the virus on to those most at risk including other family members with underlying health conditions or their grandparents.

• Understand their frustrations

Due to the pandemic, there are pieces of stuff that they’ve been compulsorily given up and be compassionate about it. Recognize their feelings and listen without telling them that others have it worse or trying to assure them that they will be okay. Sharing your frustrations and disappointments will put you on the same team. Encourage them to be creative with how they interact virtually if restrictions in your area make it difficult for your kids to see their friends in person.